Nintendo Purchases Xenosaga Developer

80% of Monolith Soft Bought Up by Big N.

Everybody's heard the speculation about how Microsoft and
Sony are going to be fighting a war for exclusives this
generation, but one of the first purchases this generation is actually from
Nintendo. Kotaku links to Japanese PR announcement from
Monolith Soft (NOT Monolith, the studio behind Condemned: Criminal Origins, as Kotaku and other sites
have erroneously reported) revealing the purchase.

For those needing a refresher, Monolith Soft is probably best-known
for producing JRPGs, especially the Xenosaga series on the PS2 and the Baten
Kaitos games on the Gamecube. Monolith was formed in 1999 when a
group of devs left SquareSoft after creating Xenogears,
the title the Xenosaga games spun off from.

Most recently, Monolith Soft has been working on the intriguing
(non-RPG) Disaster: Day of Crisis (pictured) for the Wii, as a
well as a rumored but unannounced sequel to Baten Kaitos. Nintendo has
purchased approximately 80% of Monolith Soft with previous owners
Namco Bandai clinging onto 16%.

Nintendo is making some moves!!!

They must see some real promise in Disaster: Day of Crisis, which is good, because I've been waiting to see how it turns out! Nintendo must want to keep this franchise from slipping into the wrong hands (Sony, MS). Hopefully they'll start churning out some great games for the Wii/DS. I hope they don't become an underwhelmer like Rare did.

Why all the XenoGEARS talk?

Yes, Xenogears was excellent. Sorry to burst your bubble, but that property belongs to Squenix. XenoSAGA was obviously conceived from the Xenogears concept, but none of the original characters/story could make the transition for legal reasons. So if you're hoping for a 'Gears sequel on Wii, don't get your hopes up.

I would rather see....

Why bother buying these companies? I hear Yasumi Matsuno would love to make a wii game. For those who is not familiar with the name, he made the ogre battle series and the final fantasy tactics series, not to mention vagrant story and he is the "true" mastermind in final fantasy 12. Why not let him have a studio to work with? But wait!!! what if monolith and matsuno made something... they are both ambitious....

Strange Indeed

Monolith soft games don't sell all that well. That isn't because there's some secret Americans don't know or something. I've never played xenogears but it had a legendary amount of cred. But Baiten Kaitos really is a 7-8 game(which I like, don't get me wrong). Still, Nintendo must see some potential in that company. They just don't buy anyone, and have really strict standard with their programmers. Or maybe Monolith soft games sell really well in japan. You'd be surprised what sells there... want me to blow your mind by saying that wild arms does ! That's why their upto 5(for playstation 2 no less) with part 7 leaning towards average. I havent' played 4 yet but most reviews I saw were under 8.

this is unrelated

A win win for me

With Baten Kaitos, I loved everything about the game except for the god awful voice acting courtesy of their Publisher Namco (It's funny in Mr. Driller and soul caliber, but it just does not work for RPGs)
Nintendo's (Treehouse's) Localizations are so much more reliable, Heck I might even try the Baten Kaitos series again.

Smart Move

Could the Big N be starting a trend this gen? I certainly hope they make moves to secure some other companies in the future...More quality games and I hope to expect the Wii to get some more RPG love. Long live Nintendo! Keep those chains moving.

Monolith Soft?

I have played all their games and in my opinion: Xenogears and Xenosaga III were great, Xenosaga I was nice, Beaten Kaitos I and II were actually good, but Xenosaga II and Matrix Online sux (surprisingly a lot)! But Nintendos high quality standars and gaming knowledge will push them to do better. Hopefully.

More the Merrier

The More Games the better. Why get hung up on BK and Xeno? I think Nintendo did the right thing, they have their new aquisition working on a new IP - Disaster: Day of Crisis.
Use their experience and nintendo's idea factory to churn out some new content.

Yawn

What a waste of Software, all that ugly graphics on the Wii is gonna blind those poor RPG addicted Japanese kids. Yea Wii can have that I'll play Mass Effect/Oblivion/FFXIII and the other great Rpgs for the real king of the hill.

Another reason to fall in love with Nintendo again...

Granted not too many will agree with me but Xenosaga is one of the best series to have been released during the 128 bit generation. With unrivaled storytelling by Monolith and the amount of resources and feedback Nintendo could provide them, things are looking good. I'd be so glad if Monolith brought the Xeno series to a Nintendo system under a new form ala what they did with Saga.

SWEEEEEEEET!!

This will be a nice addition to Nintendo's in-house game division. Xenosaga kicked ass. Baiten Kaitos was a good game, not great, but good enough to make me play through it. But I look forward to see what games will come out of the purchase. And maybe even a collaboration with Miyamoto on a project. I can only see good things from this.

WOW!!!!

Microsoft and Sony...

are busy tearing each other apart and releasing new versions of their existing consoles, Nintendo is quietly shoring up the holes that were so apparent in the Gamecube. Having yet another great studio to develop games for the Wii is another step in the right direction to bringing Nintendo back from the land of Sega, Atari, and Neo Geo. I'm glad that the big N is still looking for ways to keep its console viable and bringing inovation to what has been growing into a slowly stagnating same ol same ol market. Competition only means good things for us gamers.